Quilt finish, flimsy finish, weekender bag finish

The quilt

Florentine Flowers for Karen

The fabric and pattern were bought by my mom but she never got around to making it.

I pieced the top and sent it to Angie for quilting.

Now the binding is on and it has been labeled. I will share it at Jackson Quilters before giving it to my niece Karen. She loves cats so if the pieced top doesn't fit her decor she can use the cat side.

The Flimsy

Hey! June blocks finished. 

I liked the arrow illusion layout.

The benefit of taking a photo of a layout - view of possible problem blocks.

I moved four blocks and sewed the columns together with continuous thread webbing style.

Then I sewed the columns together.

The cream on cream border was added and that's a flimsy finish. Yea!

                                                                             The Weekender Bag

This is the second Wren Weekender Bag I have finished. This time I made the handles and fused a lighter weight interfacing to the outside fabric. I chose the inside binding finish technique. I used a very stiff inter 

facing for the bottom and it was hard to turn the four corners. I decided to hand stitch the inside binding.

The bag does stand up with this thinner interfacing.

I have several yards of beautiful canvas that I will use to make some more bags.

I am considering fusible batting for the next one.

More bags to come.

Oh, I bought some fancy ribbons that may show up on small zipper bags.

Check back next week.

Vacation fabric purchases and new sewing machine

Last week we spent time at Hilton Head Island with our daughter and her family.

Of course I had to check out the local quilt shop, Island Quilters.

Below are some fabrics that I will make into a memory lap quilt to help us remember the dolphin tour and butterfly house we saw on the trips.

The two pieces below will become a dress for Ava.

She wasn't on the trip but she loves the beach so I think she will enjoy having a dress made from this cute ocean adventure fabric.

On the way to the beach we stopped to visit with my brother and sister-in-law.

Doreen was looking for a new home for her grandmother's treadle sewing machine.

I was interested. My brother delivered this beauty to our house Friday.

Curb service!

Can't wait to find out if I'm coordinated enough to sew with this machine.

When we got back home I had a text from quilter Angie.

The Florentine Flowers quilt was finished.

She did a great job with an all-over fan pattern.

She used cream on the top and white on the back.

The binding will be the cranberry fabric in the photo above.

I have trimmed the excess. Next to prep the binding.

Meanwhile I am slowly making progress on Hey! June.

I have all the light colored blocks finished.

Just about to go work on the dark blocks.

How was your week?

 

Quilting and dressmaking busy-ness

Once again the photos uploaded in the wrong order.

This week I finished a dress for Ava - Piper by Violette Field Threads. I cut it out yesterday afternoon and almost had it finished in two hours. I changed the armhole finish from the way the directions suggested. The photo to the side is the back view.

Below is my quilt finish. Yes, I had sort of finished it months ago but I wanted to embellish it with big stitch quilting. I finished all the embellishment and wrote the label Monday. It is on my bed and I love it. It was a good learning experience. I will use what I learned when I do some big stitches on My Small World quilt ... maybe in the fall. 

Below is the documentation I wrote on the lining of the Piper dress. After reading comments on VFT's Facebook page, I thought it would be good to write the name of the pattern and the size in the dress.

If Ava wants another Piper dress, her mom can see which pattern to request.

I used bias strips to finish the armholes. The directions showed how to make a burrito fold, sew the seam and turn the dress inside out. I wasn't confident I would do a good job with the process. Happy with my hack.

In other sewing news I started Hey! June by Gudrun with others from around the globe. I have my fabric cut and ready for assembly line sewing.

Going to Ava's tomorrow, then to the beach for a week.

Looking forward to time with grandchildren.

Happy sewing!